Marissa Faireborn

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Marissa Faireborn is a human from the Generation 1 continuity family.

DON'T DATE ROBOTS. Brought to you by the Space Pope.

Marissa Faireborn is an officer in the Earth Defense Command. Hailing from a family with a history in the military, Marissa is tough, headstrong and independent. She's a take-charge woman who's always calm in a crisis and performs her duties with strict professionalism. She may be small and squishy, but her boldness, strength of heart and skill with many weapons from blaster to knife mean she is respected by both Autobots and Decepticons alike. When a Decepticon looks upon Marissa Faireborn, they see a genuine adversary, while the Autobots know her as a trusted ally and friend... and in some cases, even an unlikely romantic partner!

Also, she's great at surfboarding.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Voice actor: Susan Blu (English), Kazue Komiya (Japanese), Michele Sterr (German, most of Season 3), Michaela Amler (German, The Killing Jar), Maria Böhme (German, Forever is a Long Time Coming)

Barbarella, eat your heart out.

In the year 2005, Captain Marissa Faireborn was stationed at the EDC's base on Mars when a call for aid came through from Autobot communications officer Blaster. Marissa had been tracking an Autobot shuttle which had come under attack by Galvatron and the Decepticons in the vicinity of Jupiter, and Blaster requested that she provide back up to the stricken craft. Marissa deployed immediately, but before she could make it onto the scene, the shuttle was destroyed by a cosmic storm, and its occupants—Blurr, Wheelie and the new transforming cog for Metroplex that they were couriering to Earth—were blasted to the planet's moon Io. Tracking their trajectories, Marissa set course for the moon, Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3 and arrived to witness the two Autobots being terrorized by a swarm of the moon's native lightpoles. Blurr was able to clear the swarm with cog in hand, and the militaristic Marissa set her ship down and instructed him to come aboard. Unwilling to leave Wheelie behind, the speedy Autobot raced back into the heart of the swarm in order to save his friend, an action that Marissa seemed unable to comprehend, deeming her digital wristwatch capable of better decisions. Nonetheless, she disembarked her ship and entered the fray herself with a jet pack, firing at the lightpoles with a null-ray blaster. Marissa was able to thin the swarm out enough for Blurr and Wheelie to get clear, but before they could get aboard her ship, several of the lightpoles transformed into their missile forms and fell upon the craft, blowing it up.

Marissa quickly took stock of the situation and stopped Blurr from panicking so they could examine the wreckage and see if the ship's radio was still working. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4 The radio was, indeed, still functional, and Marissa used it to contact Blaster on Earth as the trio were again set upon by the lightpoles. Blaster tried to assuage her fears by assuring her that Sky Lynx was on his way, but Marissa didn't even know who or what that was, so it didn't raise her spirits much. Soon after, the powerful Sky Lynx arrived on Io and blasted the lightpoles to bits, but before Marissa, Wheelie and Blurr could board his cargo pod, they were set upon by the newest Decepticon warriors, the Predacons. Marissa could do little in the battle that ensued, but was at least able to escape injury, nimbly vaulting over Rampage as he charged at her. After Sky Lynx had successfully dispatched the Predacons, the team headed for Earth at top speed, and successfully delivered the transforming cog in time for Metroplex to transform and fend off an attack by Trypticon. Soon after, Marissa stood beside her allies and watched as Rodimus Prime addressed the Autobot forces on their concurrent victory over the Quintessons. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5

As 2006 settled in, Marissa was aboard the EDC's space station in orbit above Earth when an unexpected EDC shuttle started an approach. Marissa demanded an identification from the shuttle's pilot, and was overjoyed to discover that was it was actually her father, come to visit. As the shuttle touched down in the landing bay, Marissa boarded quickly and embraced her father, but before she could lead him off the ship, its doors shut behind her and it quickly took off again. The shuttle was, in actuality, a disguised Quintesson vessel, and her "father" was nothing more than a solid hologram which abruptly transformed into a monstrous shape and attacked her. With a few quick martial arts kicks and chops, Marissa had downed the simulation, and then discovered she was not the Quintesson scientist's only captive: Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, and Wreck-Gar had also been abducted to participate in the Quintesson's experiments. Knocked out by a submission field, Marissa was to be the Quintesson's first examination subject, but Wreck-Gar was able to deactivate the submission device, allowing her to overpower the feeble Quintesson scientist.

Chaos ensued when the ship passed through an electron storm, and Marissa used the fighting as a cover to reach the ship's controls, intending to plot a course back to Earth. Unfortunately, the ship was now caught in the gravity of a black hole, and Marissa had to stop everyone from fighting so they could work together to assess the situation. The Quintesson scientist attempted to flee aboard the ship's lone working escape pod, but Ultra Magnus hauled him from the pod and attempted to send Marissa to safety in his place. Unfortunately, interference from the Quintesson's guard delayed Marissa from boarding, and the whole ship was sucked through the black hole, into a negative universe. Only through finally putting aside their differences and working together, were Marissa, the Transformers and the Quintessons able to repair the ship and return to their universe of origin, where Sky Lynx soon arrived to take Marissa, Wreck-Gar and Ultra Magnus home. The Killing Jar

The inspiration for Kiss Players.

Marissa was engaging in a bout of regular target practise at an EDC gun range on Earth, trying out "level 3" in her pursuit of a challenge. After blasting a target of Cyclonus, she was suddenly struck by a wave of chronal energy released into the universe by a malfunctioning Quintesson Time Window. The energy caused Marissa to regress into a crying infant, much to the shock of the EDC trooper on watch at the time. Luckily, the Autobots, working with the Quintessons, were able to shut down and destroy the time window, undoing the effects of the chronal energy. Forever Is a Long Time Coming

File:Marissadirk.jpg

"You like me because I'm a scoundrel."

Teamed with the Technobots as part of a science unit, Marissa and her Autobot allies were called into action to rescue smuggler "free trader" Dirk Manus when his ship, the Lazy Sue was attacked by the Terrorcons. A mutual attraction between Marissa and Manus sprang up immediately, but Marissa did not trust the trader entirely when he claimed that he had found a Quintesson base on the moon of Titan. As Computron, the Technobots supported investigation of his claims, but until the Lazy Sue could be repaired, Marissa resolved not to let Manus out of her sight, leading to a romantic evening of dinner and dancing. This did not win Marissa over entirely, however, and she soon confirmed her suspicions when she tracked Manus back out into the desert where he had crashed, and discovered that he was actually attempting to transport a highly-experimental molecular recreator to the Quintessons. Marissa attempted to arrest Manus, but he pulled a concealed weapon on her and shot the blaster from her hand before overpowering her in a struggle, knocking her out and tying her up. She was not found until the next morning, by Afterburner and Nosecone—the rest of the Technobots had already departed for Titan with Manus.

Marissa, Afterburner and Nosecone quickly made their way to Titan, and discovered that Manus had been double-crossed by the Quintessons, and a team of Sharkticons were now on his and the other Technobots' tails. Marissa and her companions disposed of the Quintessons, but purely to rescue the other Technobots: Marissa slugged Manus in the jaw and was prepared to leave him to rot. Manus spun the situation around, informing Marissa of the molecular recreator and promising to disable it, forcing her to keep him around. As they trekked back to the Quintesson base, Marissa and Manus confessed their attraction to each other, but both also admitted that their jobs came first... not that that stopped them from getting rather hot and heavy in the middle of the jungle floor when Manus helped save Marissa from some living vines. But even that was a ruse: Manus used their closeness to grab Marissa's blaster, and walked her and the Technobots into the Quintessons' base as his prisoners. Marissa was horrified when Manus used the recreator to molecularly disassemble the Technobots, and when she attempted to rush the smuggler, she was downed by the Terrorcons. Yet again, however, Manus's actions had a hidden purpose: while the Quintessons were distracted by Marissa's outburst, he reassembled the Technobots, having always intended to double-cross the Quintessons himself in just this manner. With their injuries healed by the process, the Technobots formed Computron and battled the Terrorcons while Marissa argued with Manus that he could have trusted her with his plans. With the villains dispatched, Marissa took possession of the recreator, and everyone returned to Earth. Marissa regretted that she could not give Manus the credits the Quintessons had duped him out of... until Lightspeed came racing up to inform her that the credits had disappeared from the EDC coffers. Marissa turned to Dirk, and before she could even finish accusing him, he kissed her, threw her to the ground, and escaped aboard the Lazy Sue. Out in space, however, Manus discovered that Marissa had replaced the credits with mimic dust, and he could only laugh at the prim and proper EDC captain having pulled a con of her own. Money Is Everything

Marissa accompanied the Autobots to Japan during a series of Decepticon attacks upon the country. Rodimus Prime was feeling the burden of leadership particularly heavily at the time, and Marissa's request for yet more help after the latest Decepticon assault had been squashed proved to be the last straw for the troubled Autobot. Telling Marissa to leave him alone, Rodimus departed to blow off some steam. Understanding what he was feeling, Marissa followed in order to offer Rodimus someone to talk to, but Rodimus told her he would rather race, and Marissa decided to play along. As the pair raced, however, they were attacked by Dead End and Wildrider and run off the road. By the time Marissa had got her car back on the road, the two Stunticons had plucked the Matrix from Rodimus's body, reverting him to Hot Rod. Marissa called in the other Autobots, who were shocked to discover what had happened, but Hot Rod himself cared little, happy to be young and carefree again. The Matrix, meanwhile, wound up in the hands of Scourge, who led a Decepticon attack on Japan; Marissa alerted the Autobots to the appearance of the Decepticons through an EDC Warp Gate, and Hot Rod was able to defeat Scourge, reclaim the Matrix, and accept his burden. The Burden Hardest to Bear

Japanese cartoon continuity

The events of the Generation 1 cartoon occur in Japanese continuity as detailed above, except that the events of the third season, in which Marissa appears, occur in 2010, rather than over 2005/2006. Japanese continuity inserts several new stories in the resultant gap in the timeline; notably in Marissa's case, she features prominently in the storyline of Kiss Players, which takes place before her appearance in the Generation 1 cartoon, but which simply cannot occur in American cartoon continuity, as the time-gap during which it takes place does not exist there.

Kiss Players

Voice actor: Lyrian (Japanese)

Remember, a giant, sentient death machine is for life, not just for Christmas.

As a child in the 1990s, Marissa lived in New York, where she met and became friends with Shaoshao Li, who developed an extremely strong attachment to her. The young Marissa resented her military father, so when one of his missions went awry and she and her father had to be rescued by Optimus Prime, she quickly came to view the Autobot leader as a surrogate father figure... and perhaps a little bit more. Kiss Players radio drama #34 Shaoshao didn't take Marissa's friendship with Prime very well, resenting the Autobot for, in her eyes, stealing Marissa away from her, and Shaoshao was forced to move back to Japan with her family before reaching an understanding with her friend. Kiss Players radio drama #23

Her chest must be freezing.

Shortly after Optimus Prime's death in 2005, the body of the new Decepticon leader Galvatron crash-landed on Earth, decimating Tokyo and utterly shattering Transformer-Human relations. A governmental organization known as the Earth Defense Command, headed up by the rabid anti-Transformer fanatic Hitoshizuku Amaō, was quickly established to force the Transformers off Earth, but support for the movement was not universal, and Marissa was amongst its opponents. Alas, these voices went unheard, and by 2006, Earth was Transformer-free, and the embittered Marissa decided that rather than try to fight the EDC with peaceful protests, she'd have a go at fighting them with big, pointy knives, as part of a female commando resistance group.

When Earth Defense Command brought Optimus Prime's corpse to Japan, Marissa secretly observed the arrival of the cargo plane carrying the Autobot leader's body. Kiss Players #1 She and her commando unit were quick to attack the convoy transporting the body, only to discover that the cadaver was a decoy concealing an EDC Autorooper that slaughtered them all, save for Marissa herself. Recognizing an unassuming trailer amongst the other vehicles in the convoy, Marissa sliced it open with her knife, revealing that it contained the remains of the real Optimus Prime. The exposure of Prime's body, however, had a bizarre effect on the Autorooper, which ejected its Kiss Player partner and begin to fuse with the Autobot's corpse.

Marissa buys MISB because she wants a GERM FREE toy.

As if to bid farewell to her friend, Marissa kissed Prime, but with this action, she discovered that she was a "Kiss Player"—a human being who had been infused with the scattered cells of Galvatron, giving them the ability to fuse with other beings. Her Kiss Player powers unleashed, Marissa fused with Prime, triggering a transformation that restored him to life and converted his body into a new Dodge SRT-10 form. Kiss Players #2

Marissa and Prime promptly made themselves scarce, and began travelling together, battling the monstrous creatures known as Legion that Galvatron's dispersed cells had also produced, while also eluding the EDC. Marissa thought of Prime as her boyfriend, Kiss Players radio drama #1 and Prime himself certainly cared for the girl, unwilling as he was to put her in harm's way, despite the prodigious knife-wielding skills that she could share with him via their kiss-fusion. Kiss Players radio drama #4

If Hi-Q made you that little bit awkward...cover your eyes now.

Knife skills were not Marissa's only attribute, however: she was also a talented surfer, and wondered if she could share that ability with Prime via their fusion. As it turned out, Prime was actually already quite skilled in that area. Kiss Players radio drama #7 Prime soon found a better use for Marissa's surfboard when he used his new powers to transform it into a knife so he could make use of the skills Marissa's fusion gave with him. Marissa was not very happy, Kiss Players radio drama #10 but took it in stride, and dubbed the new weapon the "Surfblade". In response, Prime named her shirt "The Three Skull Brothers," after the image on it. Kiss Players radio drama #16

Prime and Marissa had a close relationship, as the girl washed Prime in "intimate" spots like his gas tank, Kiss Players radio drama #19 and they would go on "dates" together, at one point visiting the seaside, only to wind up in battle with a Legion created from the fusion of an octopus and a shipwreck. Prime regretted that these activities had to be carried out under the cover of night, and vowed that he and Marissa would visit the beach under the light of the sun. Someday, Under the Sun

Marissa later crossed paths with a girl named Atari Hitotonari, and quickly became friends with her. Sadly, Marissa soon discovered that Atari was actually a member of the EDC, and realized regretfully that this would likely mean they would have to fight. Kiss Players radio drama #13 Nevertheless, when Atari found herself in danger, Marissa and Prime rescued her on several occasions. Kiss Players radio drama #9

Hands, Mister!

Soon, Optimus Prime found himself suffering from a recurring nightmare filled with visions of his old enemy, Megatron. In the grip of one of these hallucinations, Prime lost control of himself and almost crushed Marissa in his fist, but was thankfully able to regain his senses before he hurt her. Marissa and Prime subsequently fused, and were able to corral a legion of Legion for an attack upon the EDC headquarters. They found their way barred by a pair of most unexpected opponents: Hot Rod had returned to Earth and become Kiss Player partners with Marissa's old friend, Shaoshao. Hot Rod believed Prime to be an impostor, and Shaoshao wished to see him dead so that she might "reclaim" Marissa as her friend, and so Prime and Hot Rod began battling. The tide shifted when Atari entered the battle, the attack was broken off, and Prime and Marissa now found they had to elude Hot Rod and Shaoshao as well as the EDC's force. Kiss Players #3 Marissa could likely never have predicted that Hot Rod would steal her underwear for Shaoshao, though. Kiss Players radio drama #28 & 29

Marissa spent a lot of time reflecting on things after that, thinking back on the summer she had spent with Prime, Kiss Players radio drama #22 on Prime's own past, Kiss Players radio drama #25 and his current nightmares. Kiss Players radio drama #31 After viewing a seaside fireworks display for their "last date", Kiss Players radio drama #34 Marissa and Prime again launched a Legion-backed attack upon the EDC. This time, however, Marissa, Shaoshao, Atari, Prime and Hot Rod all decided to set their differences aside in order to discover the true, dark secret lurking within the EDC. Kiss Players radio drama #37 Venturing into the mysterious Genital System facility hidden beneath the EDC headquarters, the team discovered a mad plot by EDC Commander Hitoshizuku Amaō to resurrect her daughter, who had died in Galvatron's impact. Thanks to the efforts of Marissa and her friends, the plan was foiled, the anti-electron field keeping Transformers off Earth was deactivated, and Galvatron's cells were extracted from the Legions and Kiss Players and reconstituted within his body, which was launched off into space. As a result, Marissa lost her Kiss Player powers, and Prime slipped back into death once more. You, I and the Spinning Earth

Kiss Players Position

The ghost of the giant Kremzeek comes to haunt the Kiss Players.

Following the deactivation of the anti-electron field, the Autobots returned to Earth in early 2007, but Transformer-human relations were still in tatters. Ultra Magnus came up with the idea of a Transformer-human singing group to try and repair relations and spread goodwill between the two races, and to that end, Marissa joined with Shaoshao, Atari and cassette Transformers Glit, Sundor and Rosanna to form this group, the "Kiss Players".

While on their world goodwill tour, the Kiss Players arrived in North America to perform at Brave Maximus but just before the concert began, three mysterious glowing orbs appeared before the Kiss Players, and telepathically spoke to them. Introducing themselves as the Sparkbots, Star Dust, Angela and Zangetsu, they instructed the three girls to kiss them. When they did so, the girls and Brave Maximus were suddenly whisked off through time, rematerializing at Sherman Dam in the year 1985, where they witnessed Optimus Prime's historic battle with Megatron atop the structure. Kiss Players radio drama #39

At Angela's behest, Marissa kissed the Sparkbot to transform her and rode the flying lion to Prime's side, where, unseen by the combatants, she was instructed to kiss the Autobot leader. Marissa complied, and a fragment of what the Sparkbots called the "Allspark" emerged from his chest. This, the Sparkbots explained, was the Kiss Players' mission—to recover all the fragments of the Allspark, scattered throughout space and time. Marissa regretted that she could not stay and try to avert Prime's deadly fate-to-come, but continued voyaging through the timestream with the rest of her friends to accomplish this task. Kiss Players radio drama #40

File:MarissaSailor.jpg

In the name of the moon, let this punishment be over soon.

The Kiss Players traveled from past to future, collecting Allspark fragments along the way. Their adventures soon led them to the year 2011, where they fell into the clutches of the Quintessons. Even the power of Moe, despite transforming Marissa into a sailor-suited bunny girl, was not enough to spare them from the Quintesson judge's verdict of "not guilty." Fortunately, Optimus Prime and Goldbug came to their accidental rescue, and the Kiss Players' voyage continued. Tokyo Toy Festival live performance

On her next mission, Marissa witnessed a robot she believed to be Optimus Prime being brutally beaten in combat in a desert by the Decepticon warrior Overlord. Marissa hastily kissed what she thought was her longtime robotic beau, but as the Allspark fragment emerged, Angela explained that this was not Prime, but Ginrai, a human man who had bonded with a Transtector intended for Prime's use. Marissa was horrified that she had kissed someone other than Prime, and made Angela promise not to tell anyone. Kiss Players radio drama #43

Things were proceeding smoothly until the Kiss Players began obtaining Allspark fragments from Transformers participating in the Beast Wars. At the point of the Allspark fragments' emergence, an enigmatic, invisible force began appearing to steal the fragments away, starting with the fragment Atari recovered from Optimus Primal, and carrying on with those Marissa recovered from Lio Convoy and Big Convoy. Kiss Players radio drama #46 The Kiss Players gave chase across the timestream, but Brave Maximus wound up crashing into the "Wall of Time", Kiss Players radio drama #47 and the team was scattered across the multiverse. Kiss Players radio drama #48

"Let us go boldly forward!"
"Shut up, you cow!"

Marissa found herself transported to the parallel reality of the "Unicron Trilogy", during the height of the Transformers' war for energon. There, she met the native Mini-Con Blackout, who had become separated from his partner Demolishor after the larger 'bot's death. Having felt a similar loss when Optimus Prime died, Marissa empathized with Blackout, and told him that their partners lived on in their hearts. As the Transformers battled in space overhead, the mysterious force suddenly seized Marissa and dragged her off through time and space, Kiss Players radio drama #49 bringing her to prehistoric Earth in her home universe, where she was reunited with the other girls. It transpired the intangible force that had been plaguing their adventures was, in actuality, the power of Primus, god of the Transformers, and that the Sparkbots were in fact, servants of his nemesis, Unicron. The "Allspark" that the Kiss Players had been gathering was, in fact, Unicron's shattered lifeforce, and the Sparkbots were attempting to resurrect their deceased master. Thankfully, Primus was able to trap Unicron's lifeforce within the Earth, but he would not answer the Kiss Players questions on what their own future would be. As his last act before he transformed into a golden sphere, Primus returned the Kiss Players to the present day 2007, mere moments after they had left on their adventure. Realizing that her future was not defined by Primus or any god, Marissa vowed to make her own future, and enlisted in the reformed, restructed EDC. Kiss Players radio drama #51

Story of Binaltech

In a parallel universe which was diverged off from the mainstream timeline by the powers of a mysterious entity known as the Protector, Marissa was stationed at the EDC's Mars base in 2005 when Megatron and his Decepticons attacked. Marissa watched as Nemesis Prime appeared on the scene and challenged Megatron to battle for control of Earth's solar system. Kill Switch

The Headmasters cartoon

In 2011, Marissa was briefly mentioned by Daniel Witwicky as a human candidate for the mission to stop Metamorphose, but he was informed by Wheelie that the Earth Defense Command couldn't get involved in the situation. Approach of the Demon Meteorite

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

She covers up better than her mom.

Marissa was the granddaughter of Nathaniel Faireborn, founder of the Earth Defense Command.

As Bumper and Warpath attempted to haul the deactivated bodies of Jazz, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Windcharger, and Wheeljack out of an Oregon lake, they were arrested by Commander Marissa Faireborn and a legion of EDC troops. The Omega Effect Bumper and Warpath were rendered unconscious, and the seven Autobots were taken to the EDCs subterranean headquarters in the Nevada desert. Atonement Contrary to first appearances, the EDC actually helped to repair the damaged Autobots, hoping for their aid in investigating a mysterious Cybertronian energy signature emanating from the deserted town of San Desto. Marissa recruited Jazz, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Bumper for the job, and led them and the EDC Night Force Unit into action.

You wouldn't be the first human he's done this to.

Even before they touched down in San Desto, Marissa had established a good rapport with Jazz, with both parties mutually respecting the other's skills. As such, when a sweep of the town turned up no civilians, Marissa instructed her troops to follow Jazz's orders as they would hers, as they began a more thorough search. Soon enough, they were attacked by an army of Insecticon clones, who killed off most of the EDC soldiers and captured Bumper. Infestation Jazz and Marissa managed to escape to a garage, where they found a veritable abattoir of human and bovine remains. The Insecticons tracked them down, forcing them to flee into a subterranean egg chamber, which Jazz promptly torched. This prompted an attack from an enraged Shrapnel, but Sideswipe and Sunstreaker managed to cover Jazz and Marissa's escape back to the surface. Once there, they were confronted with yet more Insecticon clones and the cerebro-shell-controlled human citizens of San Desto. While the Autobots were unwilling to risk killing the helpless thralls, Marissa waded into the army with fists flying. Further bloodshed was prevented, however, when Bumper took out Bombshell, neutralizing both clones and slaves. Extermination

Soon after, back at EDC headquarters, Marissa shared a few parting words with Jazz as he and the other Autobots waited for their comrades to pick them up. Marissa assured Jazz that he was not to blame for the loss of the entire Night Force, and seemed about to bring up the strange relationship that had bloomed between the pair of them, until Wheeljack interrupted. Lost and Found

Sometime later, Marissa was chewed out by her superior over the loss of Night Force, who blamed the involvement of the Autobots for the mission going sour. Marissa defended the Autobots (and left the colonel distinctly unimpressed in the process, particularly when he learned that she was on a first-name basis with Jazz), but the colonel demanded that she reinstate her grandfather's Project Centurion, in order to put the EDC on a more equal footing with the Transformers, in terms of power. Marissa objected vocally, but could not sway her commanding officer. The Route of All Evil

Dreamwave subsequently went out of business, and Marissa's story was left unfinished.

IDW Generation 1 continuity

"Good work, Thundercracker! We're making you head writer on SVU!"

Marissa was participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City when the Decepticon invasion struck, killing thousands and devastating the city. As one of the businessmen she'd been protesting against died in her arms, she realized there were much greater evils out there that humanity needed to stand united against. Detonation Boulevard Joining the anti-Transformer group Skywatch, The Onyx Interface Conclusion: The Obliterati she eventually rose to the position of director of its successor, the Earth Defense Command. When the Decepticons returned years later with a peace offer, Marissa and General Witwicky met with Galvatron and Soundwave at the South Pole. Though she had nothing but mistrust for the aliens, their revelation that Megatron, humanity's tormentor, was now an Autobot convinced her to form an alliance with the Decepticons against the Autobots. Detonation Boulevard

As the EDC liaison to deserted Decepticon Thundercracker, Marissa contacted him and had him act as bait to lure Optimus Prime's Autobot team into an ambush. Once Prime and his troops arrived at Thundercracker's home, she revealed the existence of the EDC-Decepticon alliance and placed them under arrest. Hello Cruel World The Autobots resisted and escaped, and Marissa left the pursuit up to her Decepticon allies. This turned out to be a bad idea when the Decepticons confronted the Autobots in a populated area, prompting her to try to call off the operation, but the Decepticons didn't listen. Detonation Boulevard Bad came to worse as Devastator joined the fight and the Transformers revealed their robot modes to the civilians, forcing Marissa to deploy the EDC's trump card: a mind bomb that knocked the Decepticons out cold, cutting the conflict short. The Autobots got away, and Marissa and her troops quickly got busy covering up what had happened. The Mind Bomb

While reporting on the clean-up to General Witwicky and Sanjay Bharwaney, located at the EDC's Marshall Islands base, Marissa was interrupted by Galvatron and Soundwave teleporting into the base and crushing the comm-link. Full Fathom Five She immediately had Thundercracker fly her to the base, arriving in the middle of a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons only to find Witwicky dead. Galvatron claimed the general had been killed by the Autobot Prowl, which Marissa believed, knowing of Prowl's grudge against Spike Witwicky. I Dream of Wires

Marissa and Ayana Jones traveled to Tokyo to meet with Garrison Blackrock, CEO of Onyx and provider of much of the EDC's tech, in response to the reemergence of Spike Witwicky and his threat against Onyx. She was unimpressed with Blackrock's outrage and informed him that Witwicky was never part of the EDC, but that they would capture him regardless. Signals, Calls, and Marches When Prowl and the Constructicons appeared in Tokyo also in search of Witwicky, Marissa's called for reinforcements as she herself prioritized evacuating Blackrock. Blackrock shocked her with the revelation that he possessed Cybertronian relics, then requested they change course to Wanmu to protect them. Vs. At the Wanmu Onyx base, Marissa was given a tour on Blackrock's collection, most importantly the Enigma of Combination that he claimed had caused the evolution of human society. The tour was rudely interrupted by Prowl's Devastator, come to retrieve the Enigma. ONoffON

Toys

Kiss Players

EDC Casual Fridays; Note: She's supposed to be 20 YEARS OLD

• Convoy x Melissa (Kiss Players, 2006)
  • Accessories: Four arms, two pairs of legs, stand, "Surfblade"

Available only as part of the headliner Kiss Players set, Marissa's first-ever toy is a soft-plastic PVC figurine with a permanent pucker, designed mainly to sit demurely on the robot mode shoulder of her partner Convoy. Marissa comes with several interchangeable limbs; a pair of legs bent at the knee to allow her to perch on Prime's shoulder or sit in his driver's seat, a pair of straight legs to allow her stand upright (but only with the aid of the small stand included), a set of straight arms, and a set of arms bent at the elbow to allow her mime the act of placing her hands on Prime's steering wheel while she's sitting in him. She comes with a surfboard (that she really can't use) that becomes either Optimus Prime's "Surfblade" sword or a pair of long serrated knives. The set also comes with a CD containing the first 5 episodes of the Kiss Players radio drama and the exclusive 10-minute audio story, "Someday, Under the Sun".

This set was originally intended for release in the Binaltech Asterisk line as "Black Convoy meets Marissa", but was cancelled due to low sales of the previous toys before it was even officially solicited. How much difference there is between the planned Asterisk version of Marissa and the final Kiss Players version is currently unknown. (Although it could be assumed she was originally wearing some pants.)

G.I. Joe and the Transformers

• Marissa Faireborn with Afterbreaker (2015)
  • Accessories: Jetpack with rifle, pistol, figure stand

Marissa is one of two exclusive figures available only through the Transformers Collectors' Club store (as well as the G.I. Joe Collector's Club Store) in 2015. Created through a combination of redecoed parts from G.I.Joe figures—two Scarletts, two Cover Girls and a Baroness, specifically, with accessories from others—she comes with a non-transforming Afterbreaker (trademark issues), redecoed from the G.I. Joe Retaliation Wheel Blaster Bike, in homage to her work with the Technobots in the original The Transformers cartoon episode "Money Is Everything". A G.I. Joe jetpack and pistol emulate the rocket pack and null-ray blaster she sported in "Five Faces of Darkness".

Notes

• Although Marissa's father has long been accepted to be the G.I. Joe member Flint (aka Dashiell Faireborn), there were no statements as to the identity of her mother until recently. In an interview on the Sony BMG re-release of The Transformers: The Movie, former Transformers writer and story editor Flint Dille confirmed fellow G.I. Joe member Lady Jaye as Marissa's mother. This would subsequently make Marissa a distant relative of Destro as well. However, in an interview with G. I. Joe fansite Joe Headquarters, Dille added the caveat that "I've always thought of Flint as being too young to have a daughter that old."
• Kiss Players designer/illustrator Yūki Ōshima based Marissa's black leather battle outfit on that of the Baroness. He originally wanted her to infiltrate Cobra, but had her join an anti-government resistance team when the idea was shot down.
• Early previews of Kiss Players implied Marissa to be a current or former EDC member, going so far as to feature an EDC logo on her shirt in early images. The idea was discarded, and the EDC logo was replaced with the set of three eyepatch-wearing skulls referenced above.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Melissa Faireborn (メリッサ・フェアボーン Merissa Feabōn)